Unlike VCs predicting doom, I’m bullish for early-stage startups. This downturn differs from 2000 & 2008 (see why below). If you’re an early-stage CEO, don’t panic. Don’t obsess about extending runway. Obsess about making something people want, and hire superstars to help. 1/n While it’s similar to 2000, it’s no nuclear winter. Expect a return to saner valuations (a good thing), not a total halt to funding. The dot com craze was based on “eyeballs” with no revenue. Watch as startups with valid products & business models keep getting funded. /2

We just unveiled Neo Accelerator, a launchpad for an intimate cohort of startups. We reimagined the essence of an accelerator with a 4-week residential campus, demo day focused on hiring, and $625K on exceptional terms, incl $20M “floor” valuation. (1/…) neo.substack.com/p/reimagine-th… 2/ Neo Accelerator will welcome 20 diverse teams of recent grads with at least one strong technical founder (see our past screening philosophy). We believe in young technical leaders' potential to create the epochal companies of the future. neo.substack.com/p/a-more-inclu…

The world’s largest record label once threatened to destroy my startup over one video. This high-stakes showdown involved music mogul Jimmy Iovine of @UMG and rock star Bono of @U2. It taught me a lot about facing fear in business. Here’s the painful story. (1/n) In 2007, my music startup, iLike, had pioneered a way for fans to follow artists and watch their videos in a feed. This may not seem innovative today, since every social network offers that now. /2

I once killed a $125 million deal by being “too honest.” There are many ways to lose deals, lest you think last week’s story was my only painful blunder. This one hinged on a fateful encounter with Jerry Yang and involved Paul Graham (@paulg). Here’s what happened.... (1/n) @paulg In 1998, I was a 25-year-old with dreams, running my first startup with Tony Hsieh, Sanjay Madan, & Alfred Lin (@Alfred_Lin). Our company, LinkExchange, was the web’s largest ad network. /2

As the world celebrated Steve Jobs’s life last week, I recalled a lesson he taught me. My one meeting with Steve didn’t end well. It’s one of my most painful memories, and a warning to startup CEOs about the danger of taking hype too far. Here’s the story. (1/n) It was 2008 and Apple was interested in my startup. I was CEO of iLike, a once-hot music app that was under pressure from both the record labels and the Facebook platform on which our business had been built. /2